The 'Garage Sale Millionaire' who made his fortune selling people's cast-offs says you can't skip this step before listing anything for sale

When Aaron LaPedis was 10 years old, his mom made him a deal: If
he helped his parents with a garage sale and sold his old toys,
he could use whatever money he earned to buy new ones.

Around midafternoon, his parents went inside to make lunch,
leaving LaPedis in charge of the garage sale.

"My parents came out literally 45 minutes later and my pockets
were full of cash," he told
Farnoosh Torabi on an episode of her "So Money" podcast. "And they
were so proud of me ... until that night when they walked around
the house and found half of their furniture gone."

Young LaPedis was hooked on buying and selling.

Today, the self-made
millionaire and author of the best-seller "The Garage Sale Millionaire" has accumulated a small fortune finding
interesting stuff and reselling it on eBay, Craigslist, or
directly to individuals. He once bought a tin toy from the early
20th century for $12 and flipped it on eBay for nearly
$1,000.

If you want to list something for sale, there's one step you
can't skip before doing so, the expert told Torabi: Know
exactly what you have and what it's worth.

"Every day, people mislist what they have, because they're such
in a rush to put stuff on eBay," he said. "They don't take their
time. If you don't know what you have, don't sell it until you
do."

He gives the example of animation art. Back in the day, thousands of drawings —
called sericels — went into one hour of cartoons or an animated
flick, and afterward animation studios would sell one-off
drawings as art to eager fans.

A sericel today
isn't worth much. They'll go for about $150, LaPedis says.
But sometimes what people assume is a sericel is worth much more,
he says: "I've seen lots of cels that weren't sericels — they
were actually hand-painted, limited-edition cels ... so instead
of being worth $150, they're worth $1,500 or $3,000. It's just
that minor nuance that people wouldn't even think to look for."

Bottom line: Don't jump the gun. Before listing anything for
sale, know exactly what you have.